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First Look: macOS Big Sur With Redesign, Safari Updates, New Messages App and More

VictorTango777 said:
Apple engineers only seem to test MacOS using a 12 inch MacBook as the only display. Below are examples of working with applications and Finder windows on a MacBook Pro laptop screen, then connecting a 30 inch, 2560x1600 monitor as the main display. Things look even stupider when connecting to a 38 inch, 3840x1600 ultrawide monitor.

1. Finder windows that were in the top left corner or the center of the laptop screen now open in the bottom left corner of the monitor.
2. Applications such as Photos, News, Stocks which I put in the center of the laptop screen now open in the bottom left corner of the monitor.
3. Documents from applications such as Keynote and Omnigraffle which filled the laptop screen now open in the bottom left corner of the monitor.
4. DMG disk image files for various downloaded applications frequently open in the in the bottom left corner of the monitor by default.
5. Some applications such as Dictionary, Font Book keep opening windows in the bottom left corner of the monitor no matter how many times I move the window.

Apparently, Apple engineers think that everyone should position their monitor so they are always looking directly at the bottom left corner of the screen. I have never seen an operating system handle window positioning as STUPIDLY as MacOS.

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I’m not sure but can’t you scale the Ui to fit most screen sizes? I thought this was a major advantage OS X had over windows.
 
Janichsan said:
I don't know who approved this design, but I'd really like to introduce this person to a team of doctors to let them check for a so far undescribed form of functional blindness.

Seriously, who thought it was a good idea to combine the overall flatness of the UI with this giant, green, plastic looking Fisher Price-designed battery icon? Your eyes get drawn to it like it's a huge, green booger hanging out of the nose of the person you are talking to.
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Right. Big green battery icon with shadows but then there's a smaller green icon with a battery with no shadow. What's the purpose of the shadow?
 
VictorTango777 said:
Apple engineers only seem to test MacOS using a 12 inch MacBook as the only display. ...

Apparently, Apple engineers think that everyone should position their monitor so they are always looking directly at the bottom left corner of the screen. I have never seen an operating system handle window positioning as STUPIDLY as MacOS.
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These are excellent things to send to Apple as feedback on the beta. Apple doesn’t read the forums here to find suggestions for their software.
 
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ErikGrim said:
iTunes and Music use different libraries. To sync Music with your iTunes library, hit option and select your iTunes/iTunes Library.itl file (not the xml, that’s a backup that doesn’t contain things like date added).

Of course if you do upgrade your library will automatically be converted to a Music library (with your old db still intact)
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Ah okay, thanks for pointing out. Seems less complicated than I think, since I plan to use iTunes as long as possible until Apple truly kicked it out the way any iTunes hacks install.
 
VictorTango777 said:
Apple engineers only seem to test MacOS using a 12 inch MacBook as the only display. Below are examples of working with applications and Finder windows on a MacBook Pro laptop screen, then connecting a 30 inch, 2560x1600 monitor as the main display. Things look even stupider when connecting to a 38 inch, 3840x1600 ultrawide monitor.

1. Finder windows that were in the top left corner or the center of the laptop screen now open in the bottom left corner of the monitor.
2. Applications such as Photos, News, Stocks which I put in the center of the laptop screen now open in the bottom left corner of the monitor.
3. Documents from applications such as Keynote and Omnigraffle which filled the laptop screen now open in the bottom left corner of the monitor.
4. DMG disk image files for various downloaded applications frequently open in the in the bottom left corner of the monitor by default.
5. Some applications such as Dictionary, Font Book keep opening windows in the bottom left corner of the monitor no matter how many times I move the window.

Apparently, Apple engineers think that everyone should position their monitor so they are always looking directly at the bottom left corner of the screen. I have never seen an operating system handle window positioning as STUPIDLY as MacOS.

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I have never had this experience and I run a 2019 13" MBP connected to an LG 4K 3840 x 2160p monitor. You might want to re-check how you either mirror or extend the display onto the external monitor. I have, however, read some reports from Catalina users experiencing difficulty even connecting to an external display. I'm grateful I wasn't one of those people. I'm one of those people who constantly has issues getting external drives to reconnect without playing USB-C/Thunderbolt-3 roulette...
 
Aside from several horribly ugly icons, I actually like the new UI. The usefulness of many of the features presented remain to be seen, but I'm not willing to poo-poo them until the final shipping version is available.
 
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Tozovac said:
Are there options to increase contrast, use bold font, and ensure showing button shapes?

Can you make the top toolbar font black?
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There are. Increase contrast adds a pretty solid black outline around anything clickable. But right now the visuals are buggy as hell (well, the whole OS is buggy as hell).
 
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Shalev said:
Finally, Depth And Details!!! not that flat BS!
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Preach it! I HATED the flat design and the only reason Apple moved to it was because of Windows 10. Now, if you've been following the monthly Windows previews, they've done away with the flat icon design and Apple is following suit. Thank God!
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dypeterc said:
Not a fan of all this unnecessary 3D shadow mumbo jumbo. It's too chiclet-y. Like we're back to iPhone OS. All the 3D rounded edges clashes with iOS's flatter design.

The foremost window is difficult to separate from the background windows. The only thing that separate them is a drop shadow that seems to extend pretty far from the edges.

Will give it a few betas but might have to clean install and revert back to Catalina if things don't improve.
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May I suggest, since you already don't like it, to stay in Catalina? Why all the rigamarole? It will look pretty much as you see in the Beta save for a couple of tweaks.
 
JacquesleMac said:
Agreed. Been using Macs since 1984, love them, but I feel I’m too old for this amateurish BS UI.
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Yes. I don’t know how they could simultaneously come up with two so opposing products: extremely well thought out and implemented iOS 14 and this childish surrealistic macOS mess (hence the name, probably). It may look to some ok on screenshots but in real life it’s nearly unusable.
 
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It's a good start. I will give Apple that. Much work is needed on making the UI better. But they got the base already set and it looks like they know the direction they want to take.
 
Mike Haas said:
Preach it! I HATED the flat design and the only reason Apple moved to it was because of Windows 10. Now, if you've been following the monthly Windows previews, they've done away with the flat icon design and Apple is following suit. Thank God!
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I'm not a great fan of the flat design either, but what Apple is producing here is one huge inconsistent mess. Large parts of the UI are getting even flatter in Big Sur, with a handful of three-dimensional icons sprinkled in which stand out like a sore thumb in all the flatness that surround them.

Either go fully three-dimensional or stay flat, but don't deliver such an undecided mishmash.
 
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Ok, this is funny. From Wikipedia:

Big Sir. Born Dufus P. Ratchett, he had a malformed brain gland that caused him to grow to incredible proportions but left him mentally handicapped.

I hope it’s not an omen!

BigSir.jpg
 
Although I do welcome a redesign, I don’t agree with some of the design choices and particularly the sliders.
 
luvbug said:
It would be nice if some of these reviews would also show the UI in night/dark modes, too.
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THIS.

I really really wish they would do this, or at least change that ugly play doh looking wallpaper to something darker/better looking.

I can’t find one YouTube review that doesn’t use the default keynote wallpaper. The biggest complaints seem to be the bright, translucent, low contrast look to Bug Sur. I imagine a lot of that would disappear if we could see it in dark mode along with a decent wallpaper, but for some reason, everyone sticks with the default. I’d post screenshots myself but I can’t run it since my 12 Mac mini is now obsolete..😤
 
Is the new notification center still only possible in auto-hide mode? Or can it be pinned to the desktop? iPad has it, iOS will have it, macOS pleeeeeease!
 
pers0n said:
Hopefully it has a setting for reducing or getting rid of the transparency like iPad does as the contrast makes things hard to read. Also hope we can add text below or next to icons, too often I can’t tell what they mean and I don’t have time to guess 100 new icons. Reminds me of when pocket casts redid the UI and used all icons and no text I couldn’t tell what is what and honestly stopped listening to podcasts because of that change. I kept clicking on the wrong thing or not knowing what was going on
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Stopped listing to podcasts? That’s such an extreme reaction to a design change. You do know there are other podcasts apps, right? Like Castro and Overcast?
 
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